Manor Royal Business District provides 866,000 sqm of commercial floorspace, of which 91.4% is B class, split across 700 properties, from large warehouses to small offices and workshops. It is home to a number of blue chip companies such as Virgin Atlantic, CGG, Thales, Varian Medical Systems, Elekta, Vent Axia, Doosan Babcock Energy and Grant Thornton.
Key elements of Manor Royal Business District’s Masterplan to 2026 include creating character zones, establishing design principles, improving public realm, delivering better facilities, enhancing promotion and branding, developing a Manor Royal-wide transport strategy, establishing priorities for improving sustainability and forming a more coherent working arrangement for the public and private sector.
Burgess Hill is the second largest employment area in the Gatwick Diamond with about 300 companies employing 8,000 people across more than 1.8m sq ft of premises. There are four key business parks in the area: Victoria Business Park, Sheddingdean Business Park, Ditchling Common Industrial Estate and Bolney Business Park. Collectively, Burgess Hill is home to a variety of businesses across 84 hectares, 95% of which is mixed B use class and commercial in nature.
Burgess Hill occupiers include the UK HQ of Swiss company Roche, a leading pharmaceutical and in-vitro diagnostics healthcare company; CAE, a Canadian manufacturer of aviation training and flight simulators, and HPC Precision Engineering, which manufactures parts for some of the most iconic British motor cars. The Department of International Trade has announced the development of a new science and technology park in Burgess Hill, providing more than 90,000 sq m of commercial space.
Graylands Estate in North Horsham is a 13-hectare site currently in commercial and industrial use. There are a number of micro-enterprises and SMEs. The buildings are all recently refurbished and fully occupied. Occupancy is evenly split between offices small industrial and storage/warehouse uses with potential capacity for development east and west of the site. The site will also be adjacent to the new development earmarked for land north of Horsham, and the services and facilities provided by it.
Horsham’s Broadlands Business Campus includes two large high-quality “prestige” office buildings, Ashurst and Holmwood, which have been recently refurbished and now provide HQ-style space.
Crawley, in the heart of the Gatwick Diamond, has the 9th highest GVA per head of any local authority.
Gatwick Diamond area is home to 45,000 businesses and 500 international businesses, including many large multinationals.
Leatherhead is the main commercial centre in Mole Valley, well known for its transport links and business parks. Occupiers include KBR, The Wates Group, Unilever and CGI. The Transform Leatherhead programme includes plans to create riverside and urban quarters in the town.
The Gatwick Diamond is on track to provide up to 4.7 million sq ft of additional commercial floor space over the next 10-15 years, which could lead to the creation of 29,000 new jobs.
Commercial property across the Gatwick Diamond, whether for sale, lease or new build, is more affordable than London and in vestments are being made to increase the supply.
This demand for space is driven by growth across key sectors and to further this growth, a Coast to Capital business plan has identified its commercial real estate priorities in the fields of financial and professional services, life sciences, food, high-tech manufacturing, leisure and transport.
Crawley is the dominant commercial centre in northern West Sussex and drives demand for employment space, attracting the most activity and commands the highest rents. Mid Sussex contains about 605,000 sq m of commercial office, industrial and warehouse space, centring around Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and East Grinstead.
Forthcoming developments of a strategic nature offer the potential to attract larger occupiers from further afield into northern West Sussex. At the same time, the proposed expansion of Gatwick Airport could also serve to cement Crawley’s dominant property market role further.
Potential for up to 240,000 sq ft
Potential for up to 500,000 sq ft of storage/distribution or light industrial
Potential for 500,000 sq ft
Potential for up to 400,000 sq ft on 17 acres
Potential for 1.65m sq ft net development on 70 acres
Up to 200,000 sq ft light industrial/warehouse
Light industrial/warehouse development of 170,000 sq ft on 7 acres)
Potential for 300,000 sq ft storage/distribution on 16 acres
National urban regeneration specialist, Muse Developments, has been appointed by West Sussex County Council to lead the works to develop Horsham Enterprise Park. The former Novartis pharmaceutical site will include up to 300 new homes and 25,000 sq m of new employment space delivering an enterprise hub that will support small business growth.